Before we start discussing some unique online business ideas, let us understand whether its worth to step into the online business world. We would also be discussing the advantages, the disadvantages & the pre-requisites of an online business.

Is it worth starting an online business?

Absolutely.

Read the success stories of these entrepreneurs who grabbed internet business opportunities & made millions in the process.

There are various advantages of an online business like:

Easy to start

Scalable

Low cost of operation

Simple & convenient to operate

Productive

Lucrative

But all that glitters is not gold!

Following are the disadvantages of an online business:

Not easy to get customers

Basic IT skills needed

Not so secured source of income

Online business is not a ‘get-rich-quick’ kind of scheme. Someone who says so is simply lying or selling his or her stuff. Be careful.

Therefore, before you decide to plunge into the online business world, I would like to list down some pre-requisites.

You will need to invest

Time

Effort

A few bucks as well

With these thoughts in mind, let us dive in & discuss some unique online business ideas that have the potential to generate serious kind of money.

9 UNIQUE ONLINE BUSINESS IDEAS THAT CAN MAKE $ 5,000 A MONTH

1. Sell A Gig On Fiverr

Fiverr (https://www.fiverr.com) is a marketplace where you can sell small & repeatable (yet technical) services or gigs to a wide audience. Most gigs here are priced at $5.

For example: If you are a writer then ask yourself “What can I do for $5?”. Your answer may be like a resume, cover letter, translation etc. These are the gigs you will be selling on Fiverr marketplace.

Please note that it’s not necessary that you price your gigs at $5. You can obviously charge more depending upon the complexity of the task. The advantage of going with $5 gig is that you can expect volume sales which may not be possible with a higher price point of say $50.

Step 1:Go to fiverr.com & sign up by clicking on “Become a Seller” link (at top right corner)

Step 2: Create your gig & offer it to the world. Done!

You will start to earn the moment someone buys your gig.

2. Be A Virtual Assistant Without A Technical Skill

For this, you need to use an internet marketplace Amazon mTurk (https://www.mturk.com/). Basically, it’s a web platform which enables people to earn from part-time online activities like information gathering, data processing, tagging photos etc.

As can be seen, most of these tasks are mechanical in nature & doesn’t require any technical skill. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Sign up for Amazon mTurk with a worker account

Step 2: After signing in, click on ‘HITs’ where you can find a list of tasks assigned by ‘requesters’.

Step 3: Click on ‘Qualify’ against a particular task to apply. Done!

mTurk marketplace is backed by the mighty Amazon itself. So, rest assured that your payment is safe & will arrive on time.

3. Sell Printables Without Printing, Selling & Distributing

This unique business idea isn’t so hard to execute as it sounds. No, you don’t need to buy raw material, manufacture or print designs. How?

Enter SpreadShirt (https://www.spreadshirt.com).

With this magical platform, all that you need to do is upload a design & the rest is taken care of by the platform itself. Yes, you heard it right. SpreadShirt will ensure that your design is printed on materials (like t-shirts), marketed & distributed to customers.

Take an example: After you upload your t-shirt design, SpreadShirt will make t-shirts (with your design), list them on their platform & handle the sales operations like delivering & customer support.

The platform claims to pay its sellers generously. If a t-shirt worth $20 is sold to a customer, you can expect a final payout of $12. That’s kind of cool!

ShutterStock has tiered royalty rates’ structure for contributors. Do check out their website for more details.

5. Sell Professional Photos Without Being A Pro

With the advent of digital business, the demand for professional photos has sky-rocketed in the past decade. They are used by professional web designers, filmmakers, digital marketers & many more. So, why not make money by selling these professional photos?

You don’t need to have a professional photography equipment or be a pro to do this. I will show you how.

Step 1: Google for some basic photography tips

Step 2: Take some beautiful photos with your phone camera

Step 3: Go to Polarr (https://www.polarr.co/editor/0) & edit the photos to give them a professional touch

Examples of some skills that are best suited for Skype training: Yoga, singing, dancing, music etc.

7. Make & Sell E-Commerce Websites To Retail Stores

This is my absolute favorite online business strategy.

Why?

Because it’s easy to execute & has got huge market potential.

With ever rising competition retailers today are battling out for new customers, revenue & profit margin. The idea is simple. Give them what they want. Give them customers, order & sales. How? Build an e-commerce website & sell the same to retailers.

Before you panic let me assure you that building an e-commerce website is super easy when you have the right tool with you.

You can easily build an online store using Shopify’s drag & drop builder within a matter of few minutes. Then, obviously, you will need to customize the store with the retailer’s products & related descriptions. The whole exercise may take from a few hours to few days depending on the number of products.

Follow these steps to execute this strategy flawlessly:

Step 1: Go to retail stores in your locality & try to get some of them on board.

Step 3:Sign up on the platform where you wanna sell the game (Windows Store, Google Play Store etc.) & publish the game there. Done!

Conclusion

I have covered 9 unique online business ideas in this post.

Most of these ideas are :

Suited for beginners

Without substantial investment

Home-based

Also, each of these ideas has the potential to generate more than $ 5,000 a month. In fact, once you establish an authority in any of these fields, the sky will be the only limit.

A word of caution here: In money world, Ideas are often over-rated. What really matters is the execution of these ideas. As already said in the introduction, you will need to invest time, some money & effort in executing these ideas.

The better the execution, the more success you will have.

Once you taste the initial success, make sure that you scale your business further with strategic planning & the right tools.

What do you think of the aforesaid unique online business ideas? Which one is your favorite? Please comment below.

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Comments

Nice list Vishal. I charge $200 per hour consulting so that makes sense to get to 5K. Also sold a 350 dollar course the other day. So creating online courses works nicely too. I’d add to open multiple streams of income to boost profits. Have cash flowing in through multiple directions. I also really push my 15 eBook for becoming a full time blogger; sales increasing. Keep those streams open guys!